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Saturday, 29 June 2013

Big bike bash round Highclere

At last - the servers are behaving, the weather is decent, my bike is straining at the leash ... so I went to Highclere, where there were a lot of caches, mostly on small roads. I wound up with 65 caches and no DNFs, but that was because I met Ron and Celia (Ailec Nor). Actually, I met them twice, we were doing slightly different routes.

First of all, I parked near the first cache that I did. I chose a nice quiet residential road, no yellow lines, and I wasn't near anyone's drive. While I was getting ready, a local trundled out of his house and called over to me. "Are you going to be parked there all day?" he asked. "Yes," I replied. "There's a car park near the village hall, you should use that," he opined. Well, I hadn't seen this car park, and I already had my bike out and assembled, so I wasn't keen to move. So I pointed out to him that this was a public road, no parking restrictions, and I wasn't blocking anyone's access. "You'll be in the way later, loads of cars will park here." Oh, really? I took no notice of him, and he went away. I got back to the car for lunch, and again at six pm.Both times, there were two cars parked in the road, including mine. There was room for a dozen.

The first time I met Ron and Celia, they were coming back from completing a multi that I was just starting. Celia offered to guard my bike while Ron showed me where the cache was, which was just as well because it was 30 meters away from where my GPS said, and I probably wouldn't have found it.

One cache I'd spent 10 minutes grovelling for, Ron came along, reached up and had it in his hand.

Another cache, I somewhat misinterpreted the hint, but while I was doing the next cache along, the true meaning of the hint came to me, and I was Enlightened. And I went back and got the cache.

Another one, I rummaged for it for a long time, but eventually gave up. Later, I phoned Celia, and, of course, they'd found it immediately in a place I hadn't prodded properly. So I went back, and this time I had me +6 Stick of Poking, and found the cache.

So a good day out, but my back is feeling the strain. I'd guess I'll be OK tomorrow.

A package arrived while I was out - I was hoping that it was the new bike motor, but it was two pairs of trainers from SportsDirect, and another mug. The trainers seem to fit OK.